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Brian Windhorst, ESPN Senior Writer
LILLE, France — For three years, Team USA has been planning, recruiting and refining to reach this upcoming week in Paris. And they’ve aligned things in excellent position to claim their fifth consecutive gold medal.
The tam took their final steps before heading to the French capital on Saturday, finishing off Olympic pool play 3-0 with a 104-83 victory over Puerto Rico to clinch the top overall seed in the medal round. That will begin Tuesday, where the U.S. will face Brazil in the quarterfinals at Bercy Arena.
The traits the team has been developing for the last four weeks once again were on display in their final game in front of 27,000 fans at Stade Pierre Mauroy.
There is Kevin Durant, the devastating bench scorer. Durant put in 11 points in yet another impactful reserve performance. And when it wasn’t Durant, it was his second unit cohort Anthony Edwards, who put in 15 points in his first 10 minutes on the floor and 26 for the game on 11-of-15 shooting. His breakaway windmill dunk in the fourth quarter will be one of the last memories from the USA games in Lille over the last week.
There was LeBron James, the timeless playmaker. James started the last two games at point guard — Jrue Holiday sat out for precautionary reasons with a minor ankle injury — and has played his classic table-setting game. James had eight assists against Puerto Rico, finishing pool play with 21 total in three games. He also scored 10 points.
There was the second unit, the haymaker. The Americans were down by as many as eight points in the second quarter when the second unit hit the the floor Saturday. By the time they exited roughly eight minutes of game time later, it has been turned around to a five-point lead. For the third straight game, their first-half shift changed the course of the game.
It was Anthony Davis, Derrick White and Bam Adebayo combining with Durant and Edwards on this day and that group is just backbreaking on the international stage. Their collective ball pressure, rim defense and rebounding was just too much for Puerto Rico to handle. No one has handled it yet.
Team USA is counting on these bench performances to continue through next week as it makes up the core of their gameplan. But there were a few other projects going on as well. Saturday was a day clearly set up for Joel Embiid to get some momentum. After struggling in the opener against Serbia and then sitting against South Sudan, Embiid had a size advantage and his teammates wanted to make sure he got some touches.
The result was easily his best game of the Olympics as he put in 15 points with two blocks. He enjoyed the interaction with the French crowd, which booed him again for his choosing to play for Team USA, which Embiid encouraged.
Jayson Tatum, who spent the Olympic opener on the bench in a high-profile decision, started his second consecutive game and played strongly with 10 points, 10 rebounds and three assists.
Puerto Rico was led by New Orleans Pelicans guard Jose Alvarado with 18 points.